[Kyuss Apollo]

My roommate has a theory that Hernandez actually killed the people for which he was acquitted earlier this week and his conscience finally got to him, so he offed himself. I don't buy that, because I don't think Hernandez had a conscience, though it is possible that his lawyers were right and the prosecution's witness Alex Bradley was the real killer. But either way, Hernandez probably saw little point in continuing an existence so barren relative to the life he had before he was convicted of murder. I suspect the prison system is also far less sensitive to intervening in cases of depression than "the outside world" is -- unlikely anyone noticed or took seriously that Hernandez may have been exhibiting signs of suicidal ideation before he killed himself.

Interesting observations about our penal system, The Man. If the idea is to punish people, and all there is to subjective reality is this life, then IMHO life in prison is far more a punishment than execution, where the "suffering" inherent in life and especially in a life in prison quickly comes to a merciful end (well, maybe, if lethal injection actually worked as promised). I can't think of any greater punishment than to restrict all the vistas of the rest of one's experience to a 6x8 cell. If punishment is the goal, then keeping murderers alive as long as possible while completely restricting their liberties is greatest possible punishment, since executing them ends any more pain or...anything. If that is the case, then the Massachusetts prison system failed in it's mission to "punish" Hernandez for the murder of Odin Lloyd by not keeping him under closer observation and allowing his suicide to occur. Also, since his case was on automatically on appeal and he can no longer participate in that process, he is actually now no longer a convicted murderer (according to the legal principle of abatement ab initio).

Another observation I will add are the conflicting Christian ideals embedded in the American criminal justice system. Americans can't decide whether the point is the "Old Testamentism" of prison conditions and/or execution being both punishment and deterrence (which as far as the latter is concerned they never are, since almost no one who commits a crime operates under the belief they will be caught, even when committing capital crimes) versus whether prisons should rehabilitate and reform criminals in accordance with the New Testament idea of redemption...While many Christians believe that they themselves can be "redeemed," my observation has been that most Americans are of the "eye for an eye" sort of Old Testament Christians when considering the potential rehabilitation of criminals, convicted or otherwise.

Both types also rely on the assumption on a "hereafter," which is mostly all they have in common, but both miss the real point i.e., that there is no evidence whatsoever of subjective reality once consciousness ceases. While Christians of either sort are in agreement Hernandez is now continuing his punishment for all eternity in Hell (with the exception of Unitarian Universalists), the reality is that his punishment ended as soon as he lost consciousness.